Ideas for an Ice Breaker Introduction for a Business Meeting

by Alyson Paige, Demand Media

Business meeting icebreakers help guide attendees into meeting agendas.

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The term “icebreakers” refers to ships designed to break up ice to facilitate travel through ice-packed regions. A flow of ice might well describe the atmosphere of a business meeting before it gets off the ground. Business meeting leaders use icebreakers to put attendees at ease, get their physical or mental juices flowing and to introduce meeting participants. Icebreakers transform the formality of a business meeting into an informal atmosphere designed to level the meeting field with enjoyable or thought-provoking exercises.

Get Acquainted Icebreaker

Sometimes business meeting participants do not know each other well or at all. The Team Building USA website provides an interview icebreaker to help attendees gather information about their colleagues. Attendees pair up and take turns interviewing and introducing each other, asking questions listed on a board or flip chart. Interviewers might ask partners’ nicknames, their jobs, time with the company and a piece of unique information about them. When participants introduce their partners, they must include answers gathered from questions with stars. Interviews take about five minutes. Introductions last one or two minutes.

Interrelationships Icebreaker

Movement and personal information can combine in an icebreaker with unifying outcomes. The Business Training Works website suggests an icebreaker called “Six Degrees of Separation.” Participants pair up and make a list of five points they have in common with each other. Items might include birth year, went to high school or college, favorite restaurant or food and favorite sport. Partners mingle with the rest of the group and try to find as many other participants who share at least one common item. Attendees share with the group what they found in common with each other.

Meet the Leader Icebreaker

Individuals who attend a business meeting may or may not know the meeting leader. The “Truth and Lies Icebreaker” on keynote speaker Garrison Wynn’s website engages attendees with the meeting facilitator. The leader lists three bits of information about him on a board, one of which is not true. The meeting leader answers questions about each statement from the assembled group. If the leader wrote, for example, “I climbed Mount Everest,” attendees ask questions about that experience. At the end of questioning, participants vote to determine the statement that was not true.

Worst Job Ever Icebreaker

An icebreaker about attendees’ worst jobs might lighten the mood and may give participants perspective about their current positions. Chart Your Course International suggests an icebreaker in which attendees write their worst jobs anonymously on index cards provided at their seats. The meeting leader reads the cards as participants try to match horror stories to attendees.

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